Needing some advice for my Heteractis magnifica!

[Joslyn]

I've had a heteractis magnifica for about 18 months now.

For the first 6-9 months it didn't look very healthy. The tentacles weren't full and it had a habit of walking around for the first couple months.
At that time nitrates were around 10ppm, and for lighting I had 4 X 55W T5 bulbs over it. (6 foot 180 gallon tank).

Then I put in 250W 12k metal halides. This made a big difference, but I'm not sure if it was directly as a result of the lighting change, or because the lighting grew algae in my tank, which removed the nitrate so that now my nitrate level is undetectable.

Is it eating? It's a good sign if it responds quickly to food and is sticky (stinging the food).

[Ticketyboo]

Yes i feed it once a week some krill and some shrimp along with the rest of the tank, and he takes it (sticks to the tenticles). I spoke to the chap at my LFS and he states they are well known for this and so just to keep moving him back to the same spot when he does move..... not very encouraging... but maybe i should introduce another annenomie... perhaps a buble coral? im just looking for my clowns to take to one....

[Joslyn]

Not sure how big your anemone is. Mine's probably about 10 inches across. I feed it a couple times a week. Make sure you're target feeding it, not just with the rest of the tank. Especially if it's not healthy it may not be catching much if it's just in small pieces.

I give mine a big chunk of frozen homemade food which has a lot of mysis shrimp, cyclopeeze, etc. in it. This chunk would be about half by half by 1 inch. I make sure it has caught it good and within a few seconds it balls up all around it, and it's finished swallowing it within about 20 minutes.

If you're moving it around be careful of the foot. It probably takes a good 15-20 minutes to pry it off something. Just bit by bit push it with a thumbnail until it lets go. Be careful not to tear the foot. Tentacles can get torn and it's able to recover, but the foot is more of a problem.

Generally I found it wanted to get up as high as possible in the tank, so if you put it at the top of the rockwork, and leave enough space between the rock and the wall so it can't sense the wall there and try to go up the wall, it should eventually stay in that spot.

[Ticketyboo]

Thanks Joslyn,

Mine is about 4 inch spanwise and i fed him today, turned all the power heads off and he grabbed the frozen shrimp chunk and the mysis that i hand fed him.

I also redirected my powerhead to give him more flow to see if that helps, so thanks for your advice and i will try this for the next few days and see how it effects him...

...... damn fussy critter eh?